Central Asian Fellows share their fellowship programme experience back home

05/02/2018

The Trust’s first ever Central Asian Fellowship Programme finished in December 2017. 26 Fellows from five Central Asian countries (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) participated in the month-long programme, exploring issues of rule of law, governance and social justice all over the UK. The fellows have been busy sharing their JST experience since returning to their homes with their colleagues and wider communities.

Bahara Nurmetova, a marketing and communications specialist from Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, organised a women’s networking evening in Ashgabat to share her JST experience and to launch a series of events to enable women in Turkmenistan to support each other to succeed in professional life. Her event – a pyjama party – was inspired by experiences shared by her attachment hosts, PWC, RBS, and by an informal women’s networking evening she participated in during the JST programme. The first event was followed by a training session for women on setting and achieving goals and was also very well attended.

Bella Gazdiyeva, the elected mayor of Rodina, Kazakhstan, has started a series of presentations and workshops to share what she learnt through her JST experience with colleagues and other stakeholders. Bella’s focus during her attachments was rural development, particularly in the areas of health, waste management and education. Since returning home, she has incorporated her JST experience into a module on rural development that she is teaching at Kazakhstan’s State Academy for Public Administration. She is also using recycling systems experience shared by attachment hosts at Monmouthshire County Council to develop a concept on better waste management for her region.

Umida Yuldoshova, a teacher at Navoi State Pedagogical Institute in Uzbekistan, has conducted a workshop for youth coordinators at Navoi Region’s Youth Council to share her JST experience. Umida shared what she had learnt from her attachment hosts, including London Youth, the British Council and ESB Community Development Learning, particularly about young people’s involvement in public life and how young people can be involved in policy making. The participating youth coordinators were keen to adapt some the projects and programmes that they heard about to the Uzbek context.